Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate Caramels are a sweet candy made from sugar, water, glucose, milk, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine sugar, hot water, and glucose in a saucepan and dissolve completely.

  2. Boil the mixture without stirring until it begins to thread.

  3. Add milk, chocolate, and vanilla extract; stir gently to prevent scorching.

  4. Test the mixture by dropping it into cold water; if it hardens quickly, it is done.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the caramel into a buttered baking dish and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, turn it out onto a buttered board or marble slab and cut into squares using a sawing motion with a buttered knife.

Wrap

  1. Wrap each caramel in paraffin paper.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Provides the sweetness and forms the bulk of the caramel as it cooks.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallisation, keeping the caramel smooth rather than grainy.
Rich milk
Adds fat and dairy solids that soften the caramel and give it a creamy texture.
Grated sour chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and some fat, deepening colour and richness.

The step that matters

Boil without stirring. Stirring while sugar syrup boils can encourage crystals to form, making the caramel grainy. Stirring later, after milk is added, is done gently to avoid scorching on the pan base.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes